OncoNano Announces $11.7 Million Series A Financing to Support
Development of pH-activated Compound Platform for Disease Detection and
Treatment

Company introduces new Board of Directors

May 17, 2018 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

SOUTHLAKE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OncoNano
Medicine, Inc. today announced the closing of a $11.7 million Series
A financing. The transaction was arranged by Salem Partners, who also
participated as a principal investor. The Series A funding supplements a
$6 million grant previously received from the Cancer Prevention and
Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). The funding will be used to support
the company’s continued clinical development of a new class of
pH-activated compounds that digitalize and exploit the variability of pH
in disease indications such as cancer. The company is also pleased to
announce the appointment of five established industry leaders to its
Board of Directors.

“The raise of our Series A and the expansion of our Board of Directors
underscores our tremendous clinical momentum and the excitement
surrounding our approach to targeting disease,” said Ravi Srinivasan,
Ph.D., founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoNano
Medicine. “The team is highly motivated to advance our unique
pH-activated compound platform for the development of a broad range of
highly targeted therapeutics and imaging agents with the objective of
contributing to the improvement of patients’ lives.”

OncoNano is using pH variability, a simple and robust biomarker, to
detect and treat diseased tissue. By targeting pH, a clear delineation
between diseased and healthy tissue can be digitalized to develop a
broad range of targeted applications. The technology and compounds were
invented at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center by Dr.
Jinming Gao, Professor of Pharmacology and Otolaryngology, and Dr. Baran
D. Sumer, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology with the Harold C.
Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, and are featured in numerous
publications, including Nature
Materials, Nature
Biomedical Engineering, Nature
Communications and Advanced
Materials. After co-founding OncoNano, Drs. Gao and Sumer remain on
the Scientific Advisory Board while continuing to conduct research in
related areas.

The company’s first program with its pH-activated compound platform is
ONM-100, an injectable imaging agent that targets the acidic pH within
tumors to accurately distinguish cancer cells from healthy tissue during
surgery. ONM-100 aims to eliminate the “guesswork” often associated with
the removal of tumors by providing surgeons with an easier and more
effective method to assess lymph nodes and tumor margins in real-time
during surgery. The delivery of ONM-100 is designed to fit seamlessly
with current surgical practices and can be employed during all steps of
cancer surgery including intraoperative, cancer staging and post-surgery
evaluation.

“The breadth and depth of medical applications for OncoNano’s
pH-activated compounds are tremendous. With these new funds, we will aim
to prove the clinical utility of ONM-100 in cancer surgeries and
expanding the platform across multiple therapeutic applications,” said
Al Guillem, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board. “I am excited to join the
company’s Board as Chairman and look forward to working with OncoNano to
deliver a new class of products that can help patients combat disease.”

OncoNano’s new Board of Directors are:

Al Guillem, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board, Former President of
ZS Pharma, Inc.

About OncoNano MedicineOncoNano Medicine is developing a
new class of pH-activated compounds that digitalize and exploit the
variability of pH in disease. pH variability is a proven, simple and
effective identifier of diseased tissue providing a foundation for the
development of a broad range of highly targeted therapeutics and imaging
agents. Our lead program, ONM-100, targets tumor acidosis to accurately
differentiate cancer from healthy tissue for use in surgery. www.onconanomed.com